An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: General Motors said Thursday it would phase out petroleum-powered cars and trucks and sell only vehicles that have zero tailpipe emissions by 2035, a seismic shift by one of the world’s largest automakers that makes billions of dollars today from gas-guzzling pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles. The announcement could put…
Tag: petroleum
Microsoft Backs Direct Air Capture Player Climeworks
Microsoft this morning disclosed investments in more climate-related companies as part of efforts to make good on its year-old pledge to become “carbon negative” by 2030. From a report: One company the tech behemoth is staking is Climeworks, a firm looking to scale up deployment of direct air capture technology that removes CO2 already in the atmosphere. The size of the…
BP Slashes Its Oil Exploration Team by 85%, Starts Switching to Renewables
Reuters reports on big changes at BP (the company formerly known as British Petroleum):
Its geologists, engineers and scientists have been cut to less than 100 from a peak of more than 700 a few years ago, company sources told Reuters, part of a climate change-driven overhaul triggered last year by CEO Bernard Looney. “The winds have turned very chilly in the…
Opinion: Biden administration must act fast to save migratory birds
On Trump’s way out of the White House, his administration demolished a law that protects migratory birds, putting over 1,000 species at risk. The Biden administration can still salvage it, but only if they act swiftly. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/biden-administration-migratory-bird-treaty-act…
Carbon Engineering’s Tech Will Suck Carbon From the Sky
“It’s not enough to slash greenhouse gas emissions,” warns a new article in IEEE Spectrum (shared by schwit1). “Experts say we need direct-air capture of atmospheric carbon.” West Texas is a hydrocarbon hot spot, with thousands of wells pumping millions of barrels of oil and billions of cubic feet of natural gas from the Permian Basin. When burned, all that oil…
Trump Auctions Arctic Refuge To Oil Drillers In Last Strike Against US Wilderness
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: In one of its last strikes against the American wilderness, Donald Trump’s administration will on Wednesday auction off portions of the Arctic national wildlife refuge to oil drillers. The lease sales are the climax to one of the nation’s highest-profile environmental battles. The lands on the northern coastal plain of Alaska are…
A History of the American Energy System In One Chart
Long-time Slashdot reader BoredStiff writes: An energy Sankey diagram [where the width of arrows is proportional to flow rates] was published today by the University of Chicago, and shows the history of the American energy system in chart form, from 1800 to 2019. The Atlantic explains: It is the first attempt to put so much information about U.S. energy history in…
Occidental Is First US Oil Major To Target Net Zero Emissions
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BNN Bloomberg: Occidental Petroleum Corp. became the first major U.S. oil producer to aim for net zero emissions from everything it extracts and sells, accelerating an industry trend that’s become commonplace in Europe. The Houston-based company announced a target to reach net zero emissions from its own operations by 2040 and an ambition to…
Death of Sea Life Off Russia Peninsula ‘Caused by Algae’
Blooming algae was behind a recent mass death of sea animals that saw octopuses and seals wash up on the shore off a Russian peninsula, scientists said on Friday in the final conclusion to their probe. From a report: Locals in Kamchatka, a volcanic peninsula in Russia’s Far East, raised the alarm in September after the animals were found dead and…
Big Oil Is in Trouble. Its Plan: Flood Africa With Plastic.
Confronting a climate crisis that threatens the fossil fuel industry, oil companies are racing to make more plastic. But they face two problems: Many markets are already awash with plastic, and few countries are willing to be dumping grounds for the world’s plastic waste. The industry thinks it has found a solution to both problems in Africa. From a report: According…